The Factorial Structure and Item Composition of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills, Reading Comprehension Test, When Administered to ESEA Title I Sixth and Seventh Grade Students.

Powers, Stephen; Gallas, Edwin J.

The general purposes of this study were to investigate the factorial validity of the Comprehensive Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS), Reading Comprehension subtest, and to study the item difficulties in order to determine areas of strengths and weaknesses of sixth and seventh grade Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I students. A sample of 581 Title I students was administered the test. Using Bartlett's test, it was determined that the item intercorrelation matrices were worth factor analyzing. The CTBS did not have a strong factor structure. Rather than being unidimensional, the test results appeared to be multidimensional. This study suggests that the results from testing Title I students with standardized tests should be interpreted cautiously. The total score for each student is far from representing any one construct and the error variance in the testing is considerable. (Author/BW)